1.Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to charging circuits used in battery packs for electronic apparatus, and also relates to such battery packs and electronic apparatus. The present invention particularly relates to a charge control circuit for controlling the charging of a battery in the battery pack of electronic apparatus, and also relates to such a battery pack and electronic apparatus.
2.Description of the Related Art
In portable apparatus such as notebook-type personal computers or the like, an internal power supply circuit for supplying electric power to core electronic circuitry is required to be small. The internal power supply circuit is also required to be operable with high efficiency in order to achieve a long battery-powered operating time.
Notebook personal computers use a battery pack or an AC adapter receiving power from a commercial power supply as the source of electric power. A predetermined voltage (e.g., 16 V) supplied from this source of electric power is converted to other voltage levels by an internal power supply circuit, thereby supplying internal voltages needed by respective core electronic circuits. For example, CPU uses a voltage level of 0.9 V or 1.5 V, a hard-disc drive and CD-ROM drive using 5 V, an LSI using 3.3 V, and a memory using 2.5 V. In order to charge the battery pack, the 16-V voltage level output from the AC adapter is lowered to 12.6 V by a charger, and this lowered voltage is supplied to the battery pack such as a lithium-ion battery pack. When the commercial power supply is not used, the battery pack charged in this manner is used to supply electric power to the internal power supply circuit.
As the circuit density of semiconductor integrated circuits increases, with resultant improvement in functionality and performance, the operating voltage of semiconductor integrated circuits is increasingly lowered. With such lowering of an operating voltage, an internal power supply circuit provided inside notebook personal computers or the like needs to make a significant voltage reduction to a predetermined voltage supplied from an AC adaptor in order to produce a stepped-down voltage that is to be supplied to core electronic circuitry.
A DC-DC converter serving as the internal power supply circuit, however, has a problem in that efficiency drops as a difference between the input voltage and the output voltage widens. An on/off ratio of the output transistor of a DC-DC converter is determined according to a ratio of the output voltage to the input voltage. As a difference between the input voltage and the output voltage widens, therefore, the “on” period of the output transistor becomes extremely short. As a result, the time length of a rise and a fall of the output transistor ends up having a significant proportion relative to the time length of the “on” period, resulting in voltage conversion efficiency deteriorating. When the “on” period of the output transistor becomes extremely short, also, it becomes difficult to increase the frequency of a DC-DC converter. Because of this, there is no choice but to use the DC-DC converter at low operating frequency, which ends up requiring a bulky coil. This is not preferable when considering the miniaturization of a DC-DC converter.
The above-stated problems are obviated if a difference between the input voltage and output voltage of a DC-DC converter is reduced. The output of an AC adaptor, which also serves as the source of electric power, cannot be lowered below a predetermined level (e.g., 16 V) because this output is also used to drive the display of the notebook personal computer. Against this background, proposals have been made to utilize a voltage level of 12.6 V output from the charger as described above as an input to a DC-DC converter.
FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an example of the construction of a system supplying the output of a charger to a DC-DC converter. In FIG. 1, an AC adapter 10 receives an alternating voltage (e.g., 100.V) from a commercial power supply or the like, and generates a direct-current voltage (e.g., 16 V) for provision to a charger 11. The charger 11 generates a predetermined voltage (12.6 V) from the voltage supplied from the AC adapter 10. The generated voltage is supplied as a charge voltage V+ to a battery pack 13 through a current detecting resistor 14, which provides charging to be performed with a constant current. The predetermined voltage (12.6 V) output from the charger 11 is also supplied to a DC-DC converter 12 where it is converted to other voltage levels. Then, the stepped-down voltages (e.g., 0.9 V, 2.5 V, 3.3 V, 5.0 V) are supplied to respective internal electronic circuits.
The battery pack 13 includes a PMOS transistor 21, a PMOS transistor 22, an overcharge and over-discharge detecting circuit 23, and a lithium-ion battery 24. In this example, the lithium-ion battery 24 has a construction in which three batteries are connected in series. The overcharge and over-discharge detecting circuit 23 measures the voltage level of the lithium-ion battery 24 to detect whether it is in an overcharged state or in an over-discharged state. Upon detecting an overcharged stage, the overcharge and over-discharge detecting circuit 23 provides a HIGH overcharge detection signal to the gate of the PMOS transistor 21. In response, the PMOS transistor 21 becomes nonconductive, thereby preventing further charging. If an over-discharged state is detected, the overcharge and over-discharge detecting circuit 23 provides a HIGH over-discharge detection signal to the gate of the PMOS transistor 22. In response, the PMOS transistor 22 becomes nonconductive, thereby preventing further discharging.
In the construction of FIG. 1, the input voltage supplied to the DC-DC converter 12 is not the output voltage (e.g., 16 V) of the AC adapter 10 but the stepped-down voltage (e.g., 12.6 V) lowered by the charger 11. Since a difference between the output voltage and input voltage of the DC-DC converter 12 is not so large, advantage is gained in terms of voltage conversion efficiency and circuit size.
[Patent Document 1] Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2002-10509
In the construction of FIG. 1, the input voltage of the DC-DC converter 12 is clamped to the input voltage V+ of the battery pack 13. When the input voltage V+ of the battery pack 13 drops in an over-discharged state, the input voltage of the DC-DC converter 12 also drops. If the voltage V+ falls below 5 V in the over-discharged stage, the DC-DC converter 12 cannot supply an output voltage of 5 V to the core electronic circuitry.
Moreover, since the charger 11 is a DC-DC converter operating based on constant-current and constant-voltage control, its output voltage fluctuate (drops) if the electric-current load exceeds a specified level. If the load of the DC-DC converter 12 increases while the battery pack 13 is charged, the voltage V+ equal to the output of the charger 11 fluctuates (drops). This may cause a failure with respect to the operation of the DC-DC converter 12 and the charging of the battery pack 13.
Accordingly, there is a need for a charge control circuit that controls a charging process such as to keep constant the input voltage V+ of a battery pack of electronic apparatus. There is also a need for such a battery pack and electronic apparatus.